CofE website: an update on the video

But he also links to a video from another source, which is even better. Here is what he says:

It is much better. The music isn’t turgid and hundreds of years old and the whole thing moves at a better pace. The quality of the typography is better and it looks edited.

However, I still question whether this is the kind of information and content that the Church of England should be aiming to communicate to the wider public. Indeed, the amount of information that this video still includes is voluminous. The whole thing feels pretty relentless now.

Anyway, let me give the CofE Communication gadgees a target to aim at. The following video was produced the Muslim MAS Media Foundation. This isn’t perfect either but it’s streets ahead, in my humble opinion. When can we do something like this, Archbishops’ Council?

The above page is from an official website with official guidelines. One of which is that everyone "submit to the disciplines in the Church of England’s Issues in Human Sexuality." All potential Ordinands have to read that book if they haven't done so already and discuss it with their DDO.

I suspect Claire may not have read it, and I know there's probably little point clarifying this but what the official guidance says is not the same as you have implied cf. LGBT and discrimination.

I agree it has nothing to do with the video or with Dave's blog, but it is extremely difficult to argue that the CofE does not discriminate against LGBT clergy - and some laity - when there is a specific exemption in Clause 2 of Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010 (formerly clause 7(3) of the 2003 regulations)which deals with exactly this matter.

CofE officials have been at pains to insist that this provision of the legislation was essential in order for them to continue to operate as they wished. And large numbers of bishops turned out in the House of Lords to help vote down an attempt by the former Labour government to amend this clause.

Thanks Simon. I know this isn't a good place to conduct any such debate and I'm not trying to start a debate, but just to say that I'm not disagreeing with you. I just think there's a difference between what the official Ministry Division guidelines say, what Issues in Human Sexuality say, and what clairejxx was saying they say. :)

That's right, the Church of England's policy on gay ordinands is completely and totally non-discriminatory. As a heterosexual male priest, David Green gets to be married to his wife, and sexually active with her and have children, and that's all cool even if the Church rarely supports clergy spouses to the degree that its 'pro-family' rhetoric would indicate.

In the same way, a homosexual male priest gets to be married to his wife, and sexually active with her and have children. And many do. And if all of their lives end up completely in a mess as a result - because being a gay vicar married father carries a high risk of things going spectacularly wrong for the whole family - then the Church will of course take no responsibility for the situation.

Or, of course, one can stay celibate, and we all know from the Roman Catholic church how good an idea imposing celibacy on people who are completely unsuited to it is. Or one can have a nice friend of the same gender and even be in a Civil Partnership with them as long as, like those crazy American education films from the 1950s, one does not share a bed nor slip the tongue when one kisses.

Or one can just tell lies, and given that the proportion of newly ordained C of E clergy who are gay remains enormous, clearly lots of young clergy are telling lies, and lots of Bishops are quite happy to accept lies.

Oh, and it's OK to have sex with one's same-sex partner if one is a layman. Which just goes to show that the Church of England's theologies of priesthood and lay ministry are every bit as messed up as its theology of sex.

David, you're clearly an intelligent man. You must be aware that to claim the Church of England does not discriminate against LGB ordinands or potential ordinands is a tight squeeze with the truth; a very tight squeeze indeed. I wonder if Christians really should be indulging in that sort of tight squeeze with the truth? But then again, hypocrisy and the Church go together like bangers and mash, so maybe I shouldn't be all surprised.

I don't know why I bother sometimes. I thought I included the line in there somewhere that was addressed to Simon at the time... "I'm not disagreeing with you". I'll give up trying to be helpful in future.

To me the most astonishing statement on the new Church of England website (http://www.churchofengland.org/clergy-office-holders/ministry/vocation.aspx)
is that the 'Call Waiting' website 'may be of particular interest'..'for those between the age of 13 and 30'.

I know we are worried about ageing clergy and the cost of their pensions, but are congregations really ready for teenage priests?

Assuming this is not the intention, perhaps what lies behind this startling phrase is the euphony of '13 to 30'?

More worryingly, however, perhaps the church hierarchy really believes that immediately after confirmation we should be encouraging people to think about entering the priesthood?

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